Blue Skies in Camelot: An Alternate 60's and Beyond
- Thread starter President_Lincoln
- Start date
No problem. Enjoy your vacation! :3Greetings everyone! So I have some good news and some bad news with regard to updates for the near future.
The bad news is that for the next several weeks, I will be going on a series of vacation type trips with my family, friends, and girlfriend respectively, and will thus be unable to write/post new updates for Blue Skies until I return.
The good news is that today's update is set to go up in just a few hours and I am currently sitting on a stockpile of 3 - 4 other updates that I may be able to post intermittently until I return home.I apologize for all the breaks in programming you'll be experiencing, but sometimes life calls, I suppose.
Thank you all for your patience and readership! I promise this is just a temporary break, not a hiatus or anything, and wanted to warn you all in advance.
2 - That would be awesome!
3 - If I recall correctly he actually recorded an album full of non-Kennedy stuff and was getting ready to release it when the assassination happened.
Either it released and flopped (because everyone associated him with Kennedy and it was too soon), or the label pulled its release for much the same reason. I can't remember which.
So with Kennedy still alive he probably gets the chance to move beyond just the Kennedy impersonation; whether that succeeds or not, well....
Thank you kindly, @Ogrebear!
I'm glad you're enjoying the timeline thus far. The British Rocket Programme is mostly still on its OTL path at the moment. The real question will be whether or not the UK's government places its funding on the chopping block throughout the 70's as defense expenditures from Rhodesia and social spending on the Welfare state mount up.
As for Disney and the Queen Mary, I think I'll have to do more research into the subject if that's alright!
Chapter 54
Chapter 54: Hooked On a Feeling - Woodstock, A New Voice in Country Music, and the Rest of 1969
By the summer of 1969, the counterculture movement was in full swing across the United States and Western Europe. Traveling from its epicenter at the Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, the “hippie” movement found mainstream popularity, establishment chagrin and support variously, and the successful completion of many of its purported political aims; such as Civil Rights, an end to American involvement in Vietnam, and better access to contraceptives and other women’s rights issues. The struggle however, was far from over. A Republican had taken the White House as John F. Kennedy’s successor, gay and lesbian Americans still faced immense discrimination and taboo, as demonstrated by the violence of the Stonewall Riots in New York earlier in ‘69, a new war was breaking out in Cambodia, and most Americans still believed strongly in the need for “law and order” in the streets, not “power to the people”. Away from politics, the movement saw popularity in its preferred music and aesthetics as psychedelics reached new heights of appeal and quality. The hippies’ drugs of choice: LSD and marijuana also exploded in popularity, particularly among young people, and “free love” became a doctrine popular with many on self-sustaining “communes” throughout the country. Though the Manson family murders, including the assassination of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau would begin the public’s pushback against the counterculture, those were still a nightmare for the future when a group of college students and music promoters got together in January of 1969 and decided to throw a music festival in the sleepy upstate New York town of Woodstock. Bob Dylan had passed away there three years earlier from his motorcycle accident, and the singer’s former home became something of a pop music shrine for millions of hippies, who would make pilgrimages to the town while traveling the country. Deciding to capitalize on the town’s name recognition with “in the know” music fans, Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, Joel Rosenman, and John P. Roberts put their heads together and organized what they hoped would be “3 days of peace, love, and music.”
The event, though plagued with scheduling conflicts, heated tensions between the organizers and acts, as well as local authorities (including New York Governor Malcolm Wilson (R) who threatened to call in 100,000 national guardsmen to the concert, but was talked down by the organizers, who promised it would remain civil), would go on to become one of the defining final moments of the 1960’s. A cultural landmark and celebration of the hippie movement at its best, brightest, and most positive, Woodstock would subsequently be hailed by music critics; “the greatest rock show of all time”, and an accompanying film recording of the festival would become one of the decade’s greatest relics. In total, 400,000 fans showed up for the event, far exceeding the 186,000 tickets which were sold in advance, leading to the organizers just throwing open the gates and declaring admission to be free. The list of performers at this iconic event were as follows:
Friday, August 16th
Chicago Transit Authority
Swami Satchidananda
Sweetwater
Mountain
Tim Hardin
Ravi Shankar
Melanie
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
Saturday, August 17th
Tommy James and the Shondells
Country Joe McDonald
Santana
The Incredible String Band
Iron Butterfly
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
Jefferson Airplane
Sly and the Family Stone
The Who
Grateful Dead
Sunday, August 18th
Janis Joplin and the Kozmic Blues Band
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Joe Cocker and the Grease Band
The Band
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Sha Na Na
Led Zeppelin
The Doors
Jimi Hendrix and (his new band) Gypsy Sun & Rainbows
Chicago Transit Authority
Swami Satchidananda
Sweetwater
Mountain
Tim Hardin
Ravi Shankar
Melanie
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
Saturday, August 17th
Tommy James and the Shondells
Country Joe McDonald
Santana
The Incredible String Band
Iron Butterfly
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
Jefferson Airplane
Sly and the Family Stone
The Who
Grateful Dead
Sunday, August 18th
Janis Joplin and the Kozmic Blues Band
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Joe Cocker and the Grease Band
The Band
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Sha Na Na
Led Zeppelin
The Doors
Jimi Hendrix and (his new band) Gypsy Sun & Rainbows
…
Johnny Cash, the “Man in Black” weathered the wonder years of the 1960’s and came out on the other side the strongest, wisest man he had ever been. Having married the love of his life, June Carter in 1968, Cash quickly got to work overcoming his demons and putting his life in order. He kicked his amphetamine habit, took to drinking and using marijuana only sparingly and redoubled his efforts in the perfection of his craft. His outlaw image, cemented by several stints in county jails for drug possession and so forth, strengthened his popularity with the counterculture movement, and by 1969, Cash, despite his deeply religious and humble nature was widely seen as “country music’s greatest rebel” and increasingly shunned by the developing scene in Nashville. Back in ‘64, coming off the success of his album I Walk the Line, Cash decided to use his talents for a greater cause and recorded Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian, a protest album demanding rights and better treatment for Native Americans. The album featured stories of a multitude of Native peoples, mostly of their violent oppression by white settlers: The Pima (“The Ballad of Ira Hayes”); Navajo (“Navajo”); Apache (“Apache Tears”); Lakota (“Big Foot”); Seneca (“As Long as the Grass Shall Grow”); and Cherokee (“Talking Leaves”). Cash wrote three of the songs himself, and one with the help of Johnny Horton (of “The Battle of New Orleans” fame). The majority of these songs however were written by folk singer Peter La Farge, whom Cash had met in New York in the early 60’s and admired due to his activism. The album’s single, “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” was neglected by non-political radio at the time, and the record label denied it any promotion due to its provocative and “unappealing” nature, according to their representatives. Cash faced resistance for the new direction in his career, and was urged by one music journalist to leave the Country Music Association, being written in a letter: "You and your crowd are just too intelligent to associate with plain country folks, country artists, and country DJs.” Cash declined to leave the CMA, but did continue his protest both in his music and in concert, performing “Ira Hayes” at his now legendary appearance at the White House. President Kennedy told Cash after the concert that he “loved the song and everything else [Cash] was doing” and the two struck up a friendship which would last for the rest of their lives. During the rest of his administration, John F. Kennedy sought better relations with Native American Tribes, and Cash continued to voice their concerns.
After taking a brief hiatus for his honeymoon and a stint in rehab, Cash returned to the entertainment industry in 1969 as the host of The Johnny Cash Show, part of the ABC network’s spring lineup. A performance and variety show, Cash absolutely loved the platform and used his program as an opportunity to perform, connect with his audience across the nation, and most importantly to him, showcase up and coming young musicians who represented the next generation of country music. Recorded at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the show began every week with a title sequence performed by the Statler Brothers; followed frequently by a brief monologue from the host and repeat guests like rockabilly legend Carl Perkins or the Carter Family. Cash also enjoyed booking popular mainstream artists for the show whom he would often perform with, such as Neil Young, Louis Armstrong, Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Derek and the Dominoes, and others. In addition to rebellious figures like The Who (who thanked the host for inviting them, saying: “We need more long haired people like you on television!”); Cash also had more conservative figures on his show, like Preacher and Evangelist Billy Graham, whom Cash considered another lifelong personal friend. To a casual observer in the late sixties and early seventies, The Johnny Cash Show was one of the few programs offering a complete, unbiased look at the United States on a musical and cultural level. The host felt great sympathy toward the young and their various movements of protest, a firmly anti-establishment figure himself, but he wanted to extend a hand to them and offer them respectability and credibility in their own right as well. Needless to say, the show was a tremendous success.
As the filming of the show’s first season came to a conclusion, making headlines with the appearance of rising star Kris Kristofferson and the decision to allow him to perform his song “Sunday Morning Coming Down” unaltered, its reference to marijuana intact; Cash decided to take a personal vacation with June and see more of the country he loved. They departed Nashville in the family’s black Cadillac, bound for the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Months of meeting fans and seeing the prosperity of the land he loved did wonders for Cash. He had never been the type of celebrity to lock himself in an Ivory Tower, away from those who had brought him success. He was, as always, a man of the people. He and June stopped in Texas on their way across the nation, and so fate brought him to the Old Quarter of Houston on the night of August 11th, 1969, where he would encounter a young man who would change the face of American music forever, much as he had.
The “First Couple” of Country Music stopped into a dingy, run down bar for dinner after Cash had missed a few too many exits on the highway and became crabby. June promptly insisted that eating would make them both feel better and her husband saw no grounds on which to argue. Seated at a tidy, unassuming booth of the restaurant, Cash and June downplayed their presence, stuck to ordering their meals and two glasses of water. The crowd of patrons, many of them rowdy biker and hippie types would likely have recognized them had they looked, but they did not on that hazy, humid evening in Houston. Their focus was instead on the apex of the bar’s common room, where a tiny stage the size of a postage stamp was presented by two dim spotlights. Standing on the stage were two stools of simple wood, one bearing a pitcher of water and a glass. Cash took notice and squeezed June’s hand as the waiter came and took away their plates. “You mind if we stay for the act?” June shook her head and let it fall to her husband’s shoulder, their bliss plainly evident for all to see. They didn’t have to wait long. A few minutes later, the owner of the bar came up and said a few words apologizing for the lack of air conditioning, and introduced the night’s performer; a tall, handsome, haunted Texan whose dark brown hair and sad smile cut a dramatic figure in his dirty ten gallon hat. He stood out to Cash immediately. Here was not a “Nashville Cowboy”, dressing the part and putting on an accent to sell records. Cash could tell by the man’s eyes that there was a hell of a story to him, and as he began to sing, his lyrics absolutely blew Cash and his wife away.
“Well won’t you lend your lungs to me?
Mine are collapsing.
Plant my feet and bitterly breathe
Up the time that’s passing.
Breath I’ll take and breath I’ll give
Pray the day’s not poison
Stand among the ones that live
In lonely indecision.
Mine are collapsing.
Plant my feet and bitterly breathe
Up the time that’s passing.
Breath I’ll take and breath I’ll give
Pray the day’s not poison
Stand among the ones that live
In lonely indecision.
With fingers walk the darkness down
Mind is on the midnight
Gather up the gold you’ve found
You fool, it’s only moonlight
If you try to take it home
Your hands will turn to butter
You better leave this dream alone
Try and find another.
Mind is on the midnight
Gather up the gold you’ve found
You fool, it’s only moonlight
If you try to take it home
Your hands will turn to butter
You better leave this dream alone
Try and find another.
Salvation sat and crossed herself
And called the Devil partner
Wisdom burned upon a shelf
Who’ll kill the raging cancer?
Seal the river at its mouth,
Take the water prisoner.
Fill the sky with screams and cries
Bathe in fiery answers.
And called the Devil partner
Wisdom burned upon a shelf
Who’ll kill the raging cancer?
Seal the river at its mouth,
Take the water prisoner.
Fill the sky with screams and cries
Bathe in fiery answers.
Well Jesus was an only son
And love his only concept.
Strangers cry in foreign tongues
And dirty up the doorstep
And I for one, and you for two
Ain’t got the time for outside
Keep your injured looks to you,
We’ll tell the world we tried.”
And love his only concept.
Strangers cry in foreign tongues
And dirty up the doorstep
And I for one, and you for two
Ain’t got the time for outside
Keep your injured looks to you,
We’ll tell the world we tried.”
Bitter, sorrowful, and poetic, yet replete with yearning and a wary idealism that was so thoroughly American, Johnny Cash had only ever heard a songwriter like this once before, in his old friend the late Bob Dylan. The young man, a singer-songwriter by the name of Townes Van Zandt finished his set, mostly Dylan and Rolling Stones covers that night, collected his meager pay and prepared to drink himself to sleep on Southern Comfort, when he was approached by the Man in Black and his Bride. Starstruck, Van Zandt sheepishly accepted Cash’s complements and got his autograph. He invited his guests to pull up stools and join him for a drink, which they graciously accepted, and spent the next two hours or so talking through the man’s long, tragic story.
Born in Fort Worth into a wealthy family, Van Zandt was a third-great-grandson of Isaac Van Zandt, a prominent leader of the Republic of Texas and a second great-nephew of Khleber Miller Van Zandt, a major in the Confederate army and one of the founders of Fort Worth. Van Zandt County in east Texas was named after his family in 1848. Townes's parents were Harris Williams Van Zandt (1913–1966) and Dorothy Townes (1919–1983). He had two siblings, Bill and Donna (1941-2011). Harris was a corporate lawyer, and his career required the family to move several times during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1952, the family transplanted from Fort Worth to Midland, Texas, for six months before moving to Billings, Montana.
At Christmas in 1956, Townes's father gave him a guitar, which he practiced while wandering the countryside. He would later tell an interviewer that "watching Elvis Presley's October 28, 1956, performance on The Ed Sullivan Show was the starting point for me becoming a guitar player... I just thought that Elvis had all the money in the world, all the Cadillacs and all the girls, and all he did was play the guitar and sing. That made a big impression on me.”
In 1958 the family moved to Boulder, Colorado. Van Zandt would remember his time in Colorado fondly and would often visit it as an adult. He would later refer to Colorado in "My Proud Mountains", "Colorado Girl", and "Snowin' on Raton". Townes was a good student and active in team sports. In grade school, he received a high IQ score, and his parents began grooming him to become a lawyer or even a U.S. Senator. Fearing that his family would move again, he willingly decided to attend the Shattuck School, in Faribault, Minnesota. He received a score of 1170 when he took the SAT in January 1962. His family soon moved to Houston, Texas.
The University of Colorado at Boulder accepted Van Zandt as a student in 1962. In the spring of his second year, his parents flew to Boulder to bring Townes back to Houston, apparently worried about his binge drinking and episodes of depression. They admitted him to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he was diagnosed with manic depression. He received three months of insulin shock therapy, which erased much of his long-term memory. Afterwards, his mother would claim her "biggest regret in life was that she had allowed that treatment to occur". In 1965, he was accepted into the University of Houston's pre-law program. Soon after he attempted to join the Air Force, but was rejected because of a doctor's diagnosis that labelled him "an acute manic-depressive who has made minimal adjustments to life". He quit school around 1967, having been inspired by his singer-songwriter heroes to pursue a career in playing music. Ever since making that decision, he had lived on his own in Houston, sometimes playing for as little as $10 per night, and often living in dilapidated rooms with no electricity or running water. Of late, he’d found a sweet gig at that bar in the Old Quarter, and had not just electricity in his room, but a bed with no bugs and a refrigerator as well. “And now I’ve met Johnny Cash himself!” Van Zandt laughed as he finished his tale and tipped back his beer bottle. “So I’d pretty much say I’ve got it made.”
Cash smiled, amazed to meet someone who had been through so much, and asked the Texan, “That first song you played, I know I’ve never heard it before. Is it one of yours?”
Van Zandt nodded, his right hand shaking slightly, a tick leftover from the therapy that he could not control. “Yeah, that’s ‘Lungs’, I wrote it a couple of months ago and wanted to try it out.”
“It was a hell of song to lead off with. Why’d you choose to put it there?” Cash wondered aloud.
“So I wouldn’t chicken out and not sing it at all.” Van Zandt admitted.
June took the man’s hand in hers and fought back tears. Her heart ached for this young man and his sad tale of loss and pain. “Would you excuse us for just a moment, dear? We’ll be right back.” She pulled her husband aside and in no uncertain terms demanded that he offer this man a trip back to Nashville, a meeting with her husband’s own agent at Columbia Records, and a spot performing on The Johnny Cash Show when it picked back up for Season 2.
John kissed her cheek and smiled. “I believe you’ve read my mind, dear.” They walked back to the table, made that exact offer to Townes and refused to take no for an answer.
“I really appreciate this, Mr. Cash.” Van Zandt struggled to look the other man in the eye. “But I wouldn’t want to cause you and yours any trouble.”
“No trouble at all, son.” Cash said seriously. “Pack up your things and call your landlord, we’ll take you back with us and you’ll stay at our place until you get yourself situated back in Nashville. Say, you think you could play that song… ‘Lungs’ on my show? I think if you pick it up there like you did here tonight, you’ve got a real shot of making it big.”
Van Zandt, struggling not to be overwhelmed simply nodded and sighed deeply. “Alright, I’ll give it my best shot.”
…
President George Romney ended his first year in office more popular and liked by the American people than he had been when it began. In a Gallup poll released just a week before Christmas 1969, 55% of respondents reported approving of Romney’s performance as the nation’s chief executive. Only 37% reported “disapproving” of his work, with the remaining 8% being presently undecided on the matter. The administration made good use of its “honeymoon” period with the public, pursuing few major policy initiatives of their own during Romney’s first 100 days in office, while instead focusing on “steadying the ship” abroad in Cambodia and elsewhere, and “staying the course” at home. Congress, firmly in the Democratic grip of House Speaker John McCormack (D - MA) and Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D - MT) managed to pass a few major pieces of legislation. Namely, The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, the brainchild of Senator Lyndon Johnson (D - TX) which improved working conditions and labor standards for miners; and The Tax Reform Act of 1969, which marginally decreased income tax rates on middle income earners and spent the lion’s share of the “Kennedy surplus” left over from the previous administration. McCormack and Mansfield hadn’t been crazy about the tax cuts which they saw as mostly bluster and lacking substance, but House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford (R - MI) and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R - PA) (who had just been elected to replace Everett Dirksen, who passed away in September that year) insisted that they were “the only responsible way for the Federal government to give back to the people who made the surplus possible”. In addition to hopefully fueling further economic growth, the tax cuts had the added benefit of being good politics for the Republicans. Liberals in the party like Minority Leader Scott and President Romney himself for that matter were desperate to maintain the support of the party’s growing paleoconservative wing, hoping that they could build a rough and tumble coalition and lead it to victory over the still dominant Democrats in the upcoming 1970 midterms. Though the likes of William F. Buckley, Ronald Reagan, and Shirley Temple would not be totally satisfied with the Tax Reform Bill, it was, in the words of Buckley in his National Review, “a step in the right direction.”
Much to the surprise of many political pundits, Buckley and other conservative critics of the administration had cozied up to Romney slightly since his inauguration. The antics of the American Conservative Party, (in Buckley’s words) “That abysmal, loathsome hive of scum and villainy”, combined with the Democrats’ redoubled commitment to Kennedy-esque liberalism and New Deal economics left the National Review editor in chief with only one major party to call home. That being said, Buckley decided that even though he couldn’t beat the liberal faction of his Republican party just yet, he would by no means join them either. He published nationally syndicated editorials hoping to push Romney and his advisers to the right on issues like free market economics, support for the growing war in Cambodia, and a ramping up of “law and order” rhetoric at home. As protests against the new war grew larger and more vocal over the next several years, Bill Buckley was always among the first to demand harsher treatment and blowback against the activists. For his own part, Buckley also kept a close eye on the political landscape, searching for opportunities to spread his conservative agenda and the ideology with which he hoped to save his beloved United States. In Buckley’s mind, the counterculture and everything it represented was a great test for America, a challenge to its traditions, values, and customs. Could the American system survive such a violent, sexual, passionate, multifaceted assault? Buckley believed it could, but only with the right leadership guiding the way home again.
Buckley, widely seen as the leading intellectual figure of the American right, did not see himself as one of these leaders in an electoral sense. His only campaign, for Mayor of New York in 1965 had largely been an exercise in publicity, performed to maintain momentum in the conservative movement between Barry Goldwater’s 1964 primary run and his second attempt in 1968. In both of the Arizona Senator’s Campaigns, Buckley and his magazine had stood by him, but now it seemed like the torch was being passed, a new generation rising to replace Goldwater. Along with the aforementioned Reagan and Temple were Senator Robert Taft Jr. of Ohio and now Buckley’s own older brother, James L. Buckley. The elder Buckley ran a spirited third party campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in New York against Liberal Republican Jacob Javits the year before, proving that even in the “liberal soil” of the Empire State, there was a desire for a change on the right. Winning almost 25% of the vote in November, James Buckley had momentum and a now instantly recognizable face throughout the state. He immediately considered another run in 1970 for the other New York seat which would be becoming vacant with the retirement of Liberal Republican Kenneth Keating. Bill, seeing his brother’s excitement and the possibility for a real gain for the movement however, advised prudence and an alternative prize.
By August of ‘69, as Jim was preparing for his second Senate run, Bobby Kennedy had already announced his intentions to run for the same seat. He still had a field of Democratic challengers to contest in the primaries, but a smart man would put his money, as Bill Buckley did, on Kennedy emerging victorious and going on to the general election in November. Considering that Jim was unlikely to defeat Liberal New York City Mayor John Lindsay in the Republican primary, he would then be forced to run in that Senate race under the banner of the Conservative Party. This would not make victory impossible in New York, but running against Lindsay (as Bill had in ‘65) and Bobby Kennedy at the same time, seemed an almost insurmountable challenge, even for the most astute of campaigners. He could raise awareness for the conservative cause by taking on two of America’s most prominent liberal darlings at the same time, for sure, but Bill knew that his brother was more interested in actually winning and getting to influence policy at some level or another. Thus, Bill advised Jim to take a crack at the other major position open for election in New York in 1970; the Governorship. Moderate Malcolm Wilson, the incumbent, was endlessly beatable in Buckley’s mind, and represented a more direct control group for an experiment he one day wanted to run on the entire Republican Party. The heir to Nelson Rockefeller, Wilson advocated for continued progressive government and moderate social liberalism in Albany, and was just the sort of candidate Buckley wanted his revolution to someday replace. Thus, he offered his brother a challenge: defeat Wilson for the Republican nomination in the primary, then go on to be a conservative Republican Governor for the Empire State. If he managed to pull it off and do a good job, Buckley figured that Jim could be a leading candidate for Vice President or even the top spot himself, should he desire it, in 1976. With some nudging from his erudite brother, James L. Buckley agreed to the plan and announced his candidacy for Governor on an episode of his brother’s PBS show, Firing Line on August 16th, 1969. Though it would require a spirited campaign against an entrenched political establishment which scorned the Buckleys and everything they stood for, Bill proved an effective campaign manager and come June, 1970, James Lorne Buckley was the Republican nominee for Governor of New York.
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: A Look at Pop Culture in 1969
thatsbunkers
Banned
Are you gonna cover the Georgia gubernatorial election? There could be a 3 way race between Carter, a conservative party guy, and a republican.
Loved it. Townes Van who? Haven't heard of him. Nice to see Horton lives past 1960, as well.
So Jim Buckely is to become Govenor of NY, could he be competion to Reagan later on? He could do some parallel actions too, like passing strict laws on abortion in NY and making it a major issue (this is Abit of the oppisite of what reagan did pacificlly he made it easier not harder to get one),maybe cut some taxes and bring NYC to heel before it spends itself into bankruptcy. That could get... interesteing.
Thank you, historybuff!
I'll admit, my decision to have Townes Van Zandt, a little known but absolutely amazing (in my opinion anyway) singer-songwriter elevated to stardom ITTL is a personal pop-culture wish fulfillment, but I think he could sort of fit the role of TTL's Bob Dylan, since Dylan met an unfortunate end back in '66. All the stuff about Van Zandt's life story was taken from his Wikipedia page and is legit. The man lived a tragically sad life but produced some truly beautiful music. He's one of my all time favorite musicians.
Feel free to go check out his stuff if you like outlaw Country/Folk type stuff!
Interesting ideas here, Mr. President! Jim Buckley as a conservative Republican NY Governor certainly changes things for the Republican Party moving forward, assuming he manages to win his race. He could absolutely be a potential Presidential candidate in the future, if he plays his cards right. All of this is assuming of course that he manages to get his agenda passed which won't be easy in the Empire State...
Congrats for the more than 150,000 views @President_Lincoln!
This TL's viewership is really exploding.
This TL's viewership is really exploding
.Congrats for the more than 150,000 views @President_Lincoln!
This TL's viewership is really exploding
Thank you so much, @IntellectuallyHonestRhino!
I couldn't have done it without the love, support, and readership of you all, my fantastic audience. Cheers, everyone!On Jim as Governor, I think he will run into some issues. The man was an intellectual, however the WASP intellectual will never be the fan favorite of the Catholic working class, and so if next time the Democrats have a moderate Catholic candidate, they will easily beat Buckley imo.
Also Woodstock could be Buckley's big cultural issue to push himself up,attacking the Govenor for allowing illegal and immoral activities to sully the Great State Of New York,similar to how Reagan used the Student protests to his advantage in California.